Chapter 11 Lucien
Lucien
She saw me.
I hadn’t meant for it to happen. Not yet, at least. I’d been careful. Calculated. The crowd offered more than enough cover, the timing measured between movement and conversation, between candlelight and skyline.
But her gaze found me anyway.
And it wasn’t coincidence. She’s beginning to feel me now. The veil is thinning for her, whether she understands that yet or not. I don’t fully understand it either. I should have looked away. That would have been the smart thing. The safe thing.
But of course I didn’t.
I held her gaze. Just a moment, but long enough to remember the cadence of her breathing that night at the station. The way her eyes lingered on mine, unwavering and intoxicating. Long enough for it all to crash back over me like I’d never left.
And it infuriates me how badly I want to go to her.
I force myself to disappear before I do something I’ll regret. Like taking a step forward. Saying her name out loud. Or worse, reaching for her like I have every right to. Right there. In front of the man beside her.
Back in the shadows of the adjacent rooftop, I stand still, surrounded by the restless presence of this city and its people. The lights blur beneath me, but I can still feel her just beyond the wall of glass. So close it borders on torture.
And she’s changed.
There’s a pull in her now. Not only toward me, but toward what she doesn’t yet understand. It isn’t something you can see in a mirror. It’s in the way light hesitates around her, how the world bends differently when she moves.
I wonder if others are beginning to notice, too.
I comb my hand through my hair and stare up at the sky.
That moment between us, that look across the room, has already crossed more lines than I want to admit.
I planned to stay only long enough to make sure that she was safe, then disappear again.
Fold myself back into the night like none of this ever happened.
If Aris knew I was watching her, that I am watching her, he’d come for me. And he’d be right to. Just being here is dangerous. For both of us.
As I step across the rooftop, ready to leave her behind for good, something stops me.
A flutter. A pressure shift. The pull of energy that doesn’t belong to me. And it isn’t hers either.
Still cloaked in the building’s shadow, my gaze sharpens as I reach for the current beneath the surface of this realm. Every realm hums differently. Every being leaves a trace.
And this?
This didn’t hum.
It hissed.
The air around her vibrates off-tempo, too faint for her to notice. But I feel it. A cold pulse curling inward, subtle and predatory.
Not good.
My jaw tightens as I focus, scanning the rooftop’s edge, the street below, even the mirrored surfaces reflecting a hundred fractured versions of her. Whatever it is, it’s careful. Hidden. Experienced.
But not invisible.
Not to me.
Something is tracking her. And it’s not curiosity. Not the way I watch her. This is darker. Older. And it doesn’t belong here.
I move closer to the edge, letting my vision slip beyond sight. A shimmer lingers near the alley beside the building. It has no form or face, but I can feel its intent. Like the pause before a storm breaks. It hasn’t made its move yet.
My focus snaps back to her on instinct.
Cece leans toward the man beside her, her smile perfectly placed.
The kind you give others when your mind is elsewhere.
She doesn’t fully sense it. But a part of her does.
I see it in the way her shoulders tighten, how her gaze sweeps the room as if out of idle curiosity.
As if she hasn’t just felt danger brush against her skin.
She’s pretending not to know.
Just as I’m pretending I haven’t already crossed an invisible line with her.
She’s aware enough to know something isn’t right. Yet, not aware enough to know what it is.
I clench my fists, my energy folding tightly inward, ready to fight if I have to. To protect her. But stepping in now would be reckless. Dangerous.
So I take one last look at her. Hair catching in the breeze. Hands wrapped around her glass. Smile a touch too practiced.
Then I vanish.
Just far enough to watch the watcher.
Because Cece doesn’t know it yet, but something is coming for her.
And it isn’t just me.